Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Daybook

Date: Wednesday, January 30, 2013 Time and Weather: 8:40 AM. After having summer-like weather yesterday (85 degrees), today is cold and windy. A cold front came through yesterday in the late afternoon and took away our warm weather. Right now it's 51, and the high will only be 63 today.Clothes: Blue jeans, a gray t-shirt, a pair of Ron's old black army socks. Food: Earl Grey with honey and lemon, Cheerios with blackberries and strawberries, a small piece of a sour cream doughnut. The House: Laundry--some to wash and some to put away. Sounds: I'm sitting downstairs with Aubrey and Cammy while their mom takes a shower. Gina's still asleep. So I am hearing some dinosaur cartoon and the dino's all have high little voices. The girls are totally quiet, watching the cartoon. Books: We found one of the library books, but still haven't found the second one. It has to be here somewhere. St. Anthony is going to get tired of me asking him for help--I'm always looking for something. Little Favorites: Three little vintage bowls from the thrift store. I love them for ice cream, fruit and cottage cheese, little desserts.

Arts and Crafts: Would you believe me if I said I finished the sweater? No? Well, you would be right, I haven't.

Photography:

These are Reece's moccasins that he wore when he was about two years old. Now Gina is wearing them. I love hand-me-downs.Music:This is so cute!A Memory: Remembering Chooch, our big black lab who died a few years ago. We loved him so much. When Josh was in 5th grade, all he wanted was a dog. We promised him that when we got back to the states and got a house of our own with a big back yard, we would get him a dog. He didn't let us forget our promise. As soon as we got into the house where we live now, he reminded me about the dog. We found someone selling lab puppies and went to see them, way out in the country. The mama dog had a litter of 12 puppies! I went to get batteries for my camera and left Josh there to get to know the puppies. When I got back, he had already picked out the one he knew was his. He said the puppy had followed him around and tried to untie his shoe laces. He was one of only 3 boy puppies, and the smallest of the males, but he grew up to weigh over 100 pounds.The owner rubbed the mama dog with a towel and gave it to Josh to wrap up the puppy for the trip home. Josh held him on his lap the whole way, and there was no way to keep that puppy out of his bed that night. They bonded immediately and completely.We named the puppy Chooch. The spelling is a phonetic spelling of atsutsa, which is "boy" in Cherokee. You don't hear the "a" much at the beginning of the word, so it's more "tsutsa," which sounds like "chooch" to our ears. I think the Cherokee language is similar to Japanese.Everyone in the family loved that dog, and it was so hard when he died. We loved to hear him howl when an ambulance went by. He loved to run and play and would swim in the pool with us. He was a terrific watch dog. We love Sister and Katy, but we will never forget our Choocher.Thank you, God: For all the cats, dogs, guinea pigs, hamsters, and one lone chicken that have brought happiness to our family. Thank you for the wildlife that lives near us. We've love seeing the deer, coyotes, raccoons, possums, armadillos, roadrunners, and even a fox in the pool. What a beautiful world you have given us. Amen